Chapter Twelve

Katha's Story

Evanen was having a lecture with Drewdon at the moment. Not that I knew exactly why, but I figured it was a lecture in which my death would be discussed in the process. Normally, I'd be worried after the kitchen incident, I figured Evanen would stick up for my life and staying alive. So instead of cowering under a bed and gnawing at my fingernails all day, I decided to use my worthless time to my worthless advantage.

When I was growing up, I took up gymnastics for awhile. It was at the time when I wanted to be an awesome princess, cheerleader, prima ballerina type of person. Still, it makes a good time consuming thing to do. So while Evanen was chatting away with Drewdon in some faraway room up in this castle, I moved my own issues into the living room, where I moved all the furniture against the wall to give me room to entertain myself.

I started out with the simple bridge exercise, holding myself in that position for as long as I felt like staying. A bridge position, if thou didn't know, is when you lay on your back, put you hands on the floor beside your ears, and shoving your hips forward towards the ceiling, keeping your back arched. Legs straight, shoulders taunt over hands. And then I sat back down and went into pike position -- which is when you straighten your legs in front of you, bend forward as far as you can, and stretch your hands over your feet. After I was done with that, I moved into a 180 degree strattle position, which was harder than it used to be. That's just like a split, in which your legs are on either side of you, so that if you looked from afar, you'd look like an upside down T on the floor.

Now for the trick. I stood up, shaking my limbs, before moving to one side of the room. After a few moments of breathing, I bent back into a back handspring, but halfway through it, I split my legs as if I were in the middle of a back walkover, and with a glance of Katha in the middle of it all, I fell into a roll onto the floor on accident. When all the world stopped moving out of positions, I was just laying in the middle of the floor, taking a couple of deep breaths. I glanced back to where Katha had been to see that it indeed was true. She was standing there, glaring at me as if I were a cockroach in her lunch.

I rolled over before pushing myself up to standing position. I cautiously looked around to see that there was absolutely nobody around to save me from getting my face ripped off by a psycho maniac like Katha. For a moment, we just stared at each other. And when she didn't move, didn't breathe even, I started to wonder if she was just a statue of Katha. It's amazing how they all can look like statues, seeing as they all seem to be pale, flawless, and hard as rock. But with the thought, I figured if she was just a statue, I could just leave without interacting with any incident involving her killing me.

When I turned around to leave, she was in front of me. The sudden appearance sent that painful jolt of fear throughout me, in which followed with the thrashing of my heart. It didn't fill my ears with a pumping sound, but I could feel it in my chest. But Katha didn't attack me. She was just another statue staring down at me with fury. Well, she wasn't much taller than me if at all, but it seemed like she was staring down at me. Either way, I started to back away slowly, and she started coming towards me at the same speed. Now was the time to try to plead for my life.

"You don't have to be jealous of me," I said in a high-pitched voice quickly. "If anything, I should be jealous of you. I don't see where you get that I'm pretty, but you're gorgeous. You could steal any guy from me in a heartbeat, I swear." And I raised my hands to show that I wasn't lying. I wasn't. But she didn't smirk or show any type of expression besides the usual glare of jealousy.

"Except for Evanen, if you haven't noticed," Katha growled, and I could almost hear the yearning to rip me to peices. Still, I was shocked she would be jealous of Evanen keeping me as a slave.

"Trust me, you can have him. I'd trade places with you in a heartbeat," I swore on my life. The back of my legs hit a couch, and I fell back to sit on it on accident. "Besides, you don't want him anyways. He's stupid. Crazy. And if you count his lack of real personality, he's not that cute anyways. Plus, he's almost completely void of other's feelings. Compared to your kind personality and beauty, I don't believe a relationship between you two would be that satisfactory on your part, so just consider my slavery as a relief on your part." She continued to glare daggers at me. I knew that wouldn't work, but it was worth a try.

She started to grab for my throat, and I yelped, "He won't like it if you kill me! He'll leave. And then that'll affect his Riding... lifting.. or whatever it is that you all are so worried about."

Katha hesitated, her jealousy now replaced by a slightly worried, uncertain expression. She looked up, towards what I believed was the direction where Drewdon and Evanen were located. But then she looked back at me with triumph. "Well, he won't like it if you kill yourself, either, but he wouldn't leave then. Especially seeing as that would be breaking his own words and destiny. How should you kill yourself? Hanging? Cutting your wrists? No... no..." She put her finger to her chin and pretended to think on what would be the perfect way for me to die. "I got it! Poor little human girl threw herself down the stairs... or jumped off the second floor. Either way would work."

I whimpered. She reached for me and grasped my upper arm. "Wait," I pleaded, grasping her wrist desparately, "Why do you want to kill me anyways? What makes you want to kill any human that looks remotely attractive so bad? So what if you were ugly when you were human, lots of people are! But at least you got the chance to become beautiful. Most people don't. So, if anything, we should want to kill you out of jealousy, you selfish, dumbass, whining, I-wanna-be-the-only-beautiful-girl-in-the-world-and-I'm-not-so-I'm-sad, crybaby bitch! Fuck you!" And out of rage, I kicked her shin, which only succeeded in making me wince from the pain now in my toes. Still, the mental pain I was trying to give her was what she deserved. I'm about the age she was when she was turned into a vampire, and I used to be as ugly as any ugly girl, so why does she get to be the only one who deserves to be beautiful at some point? Flawless, even!

This ranting rage seemed to make her reconsider killing me, for she let go of my arm in deep thought. The jealousy was still there, but it was now being overrun by something else... that looked a bit like pain. Katha did look beautiful when she wasn't about to kill me. What women wouldn't do to look remotely like that, with glowing skin that looked soft as silk, yet was strong and hard as marble. And her green eyes could devour any man's thoughts, drowning them with the glow of her blonde waves of hair. There was no reason why she should be jealous of anyone when she was perfect.

Katha sat next to me, and I flinched in preparation of being attacked. But she didn't attack me.. at least not yet. Instead, she clasped her hands together almost nervously, and stared at the wall wistfully. "You don't get it," She said to me, almost angrily, "None of you humans understand. It's not that I think I'm remotely ugly. It's just because I know what undeserved beauty makes you humans like. All of you. When you walk past an ugly, diseased girl, you throw stuff at her, poke her with sticks, burn her, hurt her, all for entertainment. And don't try to tell me you're an angel because any human who was just blessed with beauty at birth are undeserving demons wanting to bring harm to everyone just because they're not as good as you.

"I was a leper. I was already in pain, with some disease eating away at my flesh. And then there were you 'beautiful' people who would prance by on rainbows to eat away at me as well. Nobody ever wanted me. Nobody ever wanted to even come near me in fear of being eaten away by the same disease. And just because I was disgusting to your kind, I was tortured furthermore. That was my life. Torture. Pain. Hate.

"And then he came along. I had thought he was just going to throw more stuff at me; cause me more pain. But he kissed me. And with his kiss came my flawless flesh, no longer diseased, and stunning beauty. I thought he loved me, but he just left. That's when I settled that I would use my gift to get back at all those beautiful people, male and female. All of them." And she paused, looking at her hands.

"But I saw him again. I saw him," she looked at me with pain, "Except he was human. And I wanted to kill him; to rip him to peices for leaving me in this warped rage of jealousy. But he was... he was so nice to me. He did love me! Only... it wasn't actually him. It was Mikel. And I figured if I changed him, he'd love me forever. He'd smile at me with eternal love; a love I've never had. So I did.

"Only, it didn't work! Once I changed him, he turned against me. Now he's just some guy warped in his own pain of being one of us forever. But I figured he'd eventually get over the pain, and I'd be right here for him to turn back to," She stopped talking, glaring at her hands now. They were clenching together with rage. "And I know that'll never happen. Ever. Beauty punished me again, and it always will. And I won't let you punish me anymore than all the others have." Katha turned her glare at me.

The calm that had settled during Katha's story was now being replaced by panic. So this wasn't a story that was going to let me live. It was one that was going to remind her why she wanted to kill me! "But...but," I stalled, trying to think of anything to keep her from killing me, "But you're like me. I'm like you. Seriously. I was never pretty. I still think I'm not pretty. I spent my whole life as the fat girl with small eyes and a bird nose! And then when I hit puberty, in came the blood, hair, and pimples, but that was it! People would throw things at me, too. Nobody liked me at all. I didn't even have friends. It wasn't until a couple years ago until I started losing weight and pimples. I didn't even know I had boobs under that fat! So how can I be less deserving than you? Huh? You think you were the only ugly person in the world? I hate you!" Maybe I shouldn't have added that last bit. Maybe I should've said something like I'll wash your socks for three years if you don't kill me' or something.

Katha smirked, obviously set on killing me. "Not as much as I hate you." And I jumped up to my feet. I ran towards the stairs, but Katha was in front of me. I turned to run the opposite direction, and she lunged towards me. She grasped my ankle, and I sprawled to the floor, knocking over a lamp table. I clawed at the floor, and Katha started pulling me towards her. So I grabbed the lamp that had fallen and twisted around to bust it against her head. She let go momentarily, but it was enough for me to stumble back on my feet, fall, and half crawl, half run towards the long window that was towards the opposite direction of Katha.

I reached the window, but instead of moving away the curtain and trying to open it -- in which it could be locked -- I tackled right through the glass. Nobody ever tells you in the movies how much that hurts and how hard you have to actually hit that window to get through. If I hadn't had a running start into that jump, I was sure the glass would have just cracked rather than allowed me through. And it allowed me with much relunctance, and much consequence. It was like being hit in the head with a brick. So when I hit the grass outside, darkness was happy to swallow me whole, which was good seeing as the window had also allowed me to be stabbed continuously with glass peices. And when I had landed, it dug the glass peices further into my body.

I couldn't have been out for too long, for it seemed like a second later, I was opening my eyes to blinding light. It burned into my eyes, so that I screeched before turning my head into the grass below me. I covered my head with my arms that felt numb and wet. Not to mention pain. And it wasn't long before I felt a sudden flash of burning pain on my skin. Still, I was worried that Katha would be after me any second, so I pushed myself to my bottom with much pain on my hands. I looked around, more like squinted due to the bright light, to see that not one vampire was out here to kill me.

And then it clicked as I felt the sun burning on my skin. It was more of a major irritation, not enough to actually kill me. Plus, the pain of the glass had fixed my body to handle any other pain. My head was throbbing, and something was flowing onto my face. Just before I could do anything, Cecilian, Drewdon, and Katha came towards me in the shadow of the house on the right, while Evanen and Mikel came towards me in the shadows of the left. I looked from one to the other, but I knew none of them could reach me because I was in the suns sight.

"See," Katha pointed at me next to Cecilian and Drewdon, "She's trying to escape, but she was too stupid to realize jumping through windows could knock her senseless. How are we suppose to get ahold of her now?" I wasn't senseless. There was a simple way to fix this. I looked over at Evanen, who looked as though he believed Katha. Still, I had to risk this because they could probably hunt me down if I tried to run now. Even though it was daylight. It's called waiting until night.

I winced before I pushed myself to stand. At least I attempted to. When I stumbled back onto my knees, I figured I had to use what I had. So I started the crawling, stumbling way of traveling until I moved into the shadows of the left, where I attempted to move myself behind Evanen. At this point, I collapsed and moved myself onto my back. Mikel had moved a good distance away from me, but Evanen bent down with fury written on his face.

"Why didn't you listen? You disobeyed me. You're not suppose to try to run or you die," he growled angrily. I was wheezing with pain. How do I explain this shortly and sweetly?

"Not running... from you," I wheezed before I pointed towards Katha, "Tried to... trying to... kill me..." And any other explaination I could have tried to tell was cut off when I became distracted by the blue sky. The white clouds were puffed like cotton candy, and they moved daintily towards the west horizon. What I wouldn't give to be a freaking bird, flying off to feel the breeze of the summer air. So many things I could be doing right now. Maybe if I died, I would be flying in the sun, feeling the breeze, and smelling the soft, wet clouds in the air. And Kyler would be there with me, probably a big, black hawk of the sky so that she could kill everybody she wanted to. I don't care what I would be. Not an owl. They go by night. Maybe a robin. So I didn't try to explain anymore. I accepted death.

Evanen understood what I had said. He also noticed that I had become distracted and was looking wistfully up into space. Probably near death. I had lost a lot of blood, and would keep losing blood until the glass was pulled out of my skin. He glared over at Katha.

"She was running from you. Don't think I wouldn't believe that, Katha," Evanen growled furiously, "Why can't you just go kill someone else for a change. Stop hanging around here if you don't like her so much. She hasn't done anything to you. And, if you must, be happy that she's all messed up because of that glass. You've succeeded in adding marks on her fragile skin, so go."

"How are we to know that she wasn't actually running away by herself," Cecilian roared just as furiously.

"The window... was unlocked," Evanen snapped, nearly losing control, "Why the hell would you think she'd be so stupid as to jump through an unlock window to escape if nothing was chasing her? And would someone like to explain to me why the living room is messed up, with a broken lamp? If I'm not much mistaken, I think I spot a peice of that lamp in your hair, Katha."

Katha was fuming. "She was trying to escape through the front door. I caught her, and tried to grab ahold of her. She struggled, so she was being chased, but only because she was trying to escape!"

Evanen scoffed in disbelief, "She came into the shadows, back to me. If she was trying to escape, she could have sprinted off into the sunfilled land. We wouldn't have been able to follow her until nightfall, but someone trying to escape would have risked it." Nobody responded, and Evanen bent down to pick me up. I didn't want to leave. I wanted to stare at the clouds. I never get to see them anymore.

"She's becoming more of a problem than needed, Evanen," Drewdon suddenly stated darkly, "If this keeps up, you're going to have to kill her, since you obviously don't want us to." Evanen didn't respond; he just turned to carry me back inside. Mikel suddenly reached with yearning and I felt his fingers brush over the back of my hand that was hanging limply behind Evanen. I didn't feel happy about that, seeing as I figured he was probably wanting to end my suffering. Then again, maybe I would prefer that, if it wouldn't be such a painful experience.

I didn't see Mikel lift his fingers to his mouth to lick off the blood that he had obtained from the back of my hand. He turned to see Katha watching him with a furious jealousy, and he ducked his head before he went into the house as well, guilt eating at his gut.

"We need to be more careful about that girl if we want to get rid of her without getting rid of Evanen," Drewdon stated to the two vampires left there with him. "And we do want to get rid of her. I'm afraid he might make a mistake at the Rising because of her." Drewdon turned to look at Katha. "And I'm afraid Mikel might be our chance, Katha. We might have to sacrifice him."

Katha was glaring at the spot where Mikel had been standing, but Drewdon's words had brought confusion in her expression. She looked at the ground before turning to look at Drewdon. "Why?"

Cecilian seemed to understand, for she said, "You've noticed how he acts around her. It'd be perfect. We'd say that we couldn't control him, and as a peace treaty, we could give his life to Evanen to sacrifice. Then the girl would be gone, and Evanen would still stick with the plan of the Rising. Perfect."

Katha frowned, obviously not happy with that plan. "She ruins everything," Katha growled with rage, but she added relunctantly, "Fine. He wouldn't have lasted too long anyways." And she stalked off with the pain gnawing at her brain.

"The race... is on," Cecilian said to Drewdon with pleasure.